CONTENT STATEMENT
The Northwest Ordinance elaborates on the rights and role of the people in building the foundations of the American nation through its establishment of natural rights and setting up educational institutions.
CONTENT ELABORATION
The Northwest Ordinance provided the basis for temporary governance for the Northwest Territory and eventual entry of these states into the United States.
The Northwest Ordinance established precedents that included:
public education (“schools and the means of education”) to be encouraged;
the establishment of civil liberties (e.g., religious liberty, right to trial by jury, writ of habeas corpus);
the prohibition of slavery (later included in the Constitution as the 13th Amendment); and
state governments were to be republican in structure (this provision was repeated in the U.S. Constitution).
EXPECTATIONS FOR LEARNING
Explain the precedents for governing the United States that were established by the Northwest Ordinance.